Tag Archives: Stephen Hawking

When Stephen Hawking passed away, some Christians jumped at the chance to slam the world-famous cosmologist for his outspoken atheism.

I wonder how they’d feel after learning that, as his last act on this Earth, he fed 50 homeless people in a church and donated money to feed even more.

Hawking and his family arranged for dozens of homeless people to be fed during his funeral at the Wesley Methodist Church in Cambridge. The three-course meal included a note that said it was a “gift from Stephen.”

The scientist’s daughter Lucy Hawking contacted the charity, Food Cycle Cambridge, to tell them the family planned to make a donation so that people would be sitting down for a “hot meal on Stephen” while the funeral took place, the charity said.

A Food Cycle spokeswoman said the donation would, in fact, go towards far more meals than the 50 provided on the day, but she would not disclose how much cash was donated.

…

“The guests on Saturday were so surprised and touched by the family’s gesture and raised a glass to Stephen before tucking into lunch.”

That’s right, religious fundamentalists eager to use the brilliant theoretical physicist’s death to promote your own beliefs: Hawking’s legacy will include acts of kindness and respect, regardless of religious or spiritual differences, and charity to those who are less fortunate. It almost sounds like something a certain Middle Eastern carpenter might do.

Hawking took the high road on the way out of this world. It’s too bad his critics are stuck in the gutter.

So next time you are in a tough ethical quandary, just ask yourself: What would Hawking Do?

Stephen Hawking’s decades-old black-hole theory has been confirmed by another scientist — and that may finally land the renowned physicist on the short list for a Nobel Prize.

Hawking — whose life with his former wife and struggle with motor neuron disease were dramatized in the 2014 movie “The Theory of Everything” — calculated back in 1974 that tiny particles should be able to rob black holes of a minuscule fraction of their energy and then escape.

That means that the black holes would slowly evaporate over time, spewing out all the dust, light and passing stars they had swallowed in a trickle of heat.

Conventional wisdom at the time said that black holes were places where gravity pulled so hard that nothing could get out, including light.

The development could open up a bizarre vision of the universe in which black holes can cough themselves into nothingness, Hawking said during recent lectures on the BBC and at Harvard.

“This raises a serious problem that strikes at the heart of our understanding of science,” he said.

“If machines produce everything we need, the outcome will depend on how things are distributed. Everyone can enjoy a life of luxurious leisure if the machine-produced wealth is shared, or most people can end up miserably poor if the machine-owners successfully lobby against wealth redistribution. So far, the trend seems to be toward the second option, with technology driving ever-increasing inequality.”